The 1947 Mystery
by kidarock
Summary: AU. A new killer is on the loose terrorising London. Minerva's job is to stop him before he get's too out of control with help from Alastor Moody and Albus Dumbledore. ADMM R&R! Warning: Violence and Language!
1. Prologue

Disclaimer: NO I DON'T! So go away! tsk.

A/N: Hello happy readers! I'm back with a different story. A Brothers' Competition shall be updated sometime in the week, so don't give up yet! Lol. I thought I would try a different genre so Ihope you all like it. Please review!

Bex

And thank you to my spectacular beta reader bigkihap! Your a STAR!

Prologue

_I stared out at the man. Beads of sweat dripping slowly down his forehead. Looking down into his fear-engraved grey-blue eyes, I whispered gently to him, "You deserve this, you know." The man started to whimper pathetically as I pulled out the new scalpel from my small leather bag I had purchased only days ago, just for him. To see a fully-grown man cry is a weakness. He does not deserve my sympathy, nor does he deserve to live. Slowly I shut my eyes to savour the moment of glory. The moment that I would soon play back in my dreams, the moment I could relive again. I had become my fantasy. I can see my father looking at me with approval as he watches over me, all the members of the Black Guild House guiding me effortlessly. I slowly pushed the scalpel down into the man's chest, his eyes almost bulging out of their sockets because the pain is almost unbearable. The man began to scream through his gag and thrash about beneath me. Just a little deeper, cutting off the olive skin that lay cleanly cut before me. Once I had finished I let my hand drift over the skin and then down to my groin, gently like a musical rhythm. I stood up and reached for the chains on the wall. The man began to shake beneath me as a cool wind blew bitterly into the open wound from the trap door a few meters away. Shivering slightly, I bent down and picked the man up under the arms, like a mother picking up a baby, and I pushed him against the wall tying a chain to one hand and then to the other. The man looked at me in acceptance that he was not going to live another day. But he is wrong, just like they all were. _

_Wrong. _

_Never underestimate me, wizard. _

_He will live another two to three days depending how long he can survive the intense heat and gas that I shall soon pour into the room. I built my own cellar, a cellar to keep my secrets safe. I shall let this pureblood bastard rot in hell. Once I had tied the remaining limbs to the wall, I looked at the pitiful creature before me. Father would never have approved, but then, he rarely did. I shook my head and walked into a small airtight room with a thick window and closed the door firmly. I put my gas mask on and pressed the button to activate the gas release. I only let a little in at a time, more time to let the bastard waste away in agony. 'Show them what a REAL man you are, punk,' I thought bitterly. _

What do you think? Good? Bad? Revew and tell me now!


	2. A Fresh Start

Disclaimer: sigh Nein! Non! NO! For the last time i don't own anything!

Thank you very much to bigkihap, my beta-reader! You rock!

Chapter 1

Minerva McGonagall sat in her dimly lit office, looking over photographs of the latest body. The body itself had been dumped near an old bomb shelter near the Thames in the early hours of Thursday the tenth of October. The latest victim, it had seemed, had caused uproar in the ministry. Two out of the now four male victims had been wizards; the other two had been normal muggles. A sudden knock at the door shook Minerva out of her musings as Alastor Moody, the head of auror unit two, walked in without waiting for an answer.

"There is a sign on my office door, Alastor," Minerva said in annoyance, eyeing him coolly as he walked around her desk. "It said 'do not disturb' if you cared to read it." Alastor ignored her as he moved a case file from the side and sat on the edge of the desk.

"I can read," he replied gruffly and thrust a file into her lap. "The bastards hit again, this time near the docks."

Minerva dropped her icy glare as Alastor announced the latest murder. Opening the folder, Minerva saw the body of a partly decomposed man with his chest and stomach cut open.

"Was he a…" Minerva started, but Alastor cut her off.

"Wizard, yes. Number five. I've got half my unit down at the docks to keep unwanted eyes and people from the body. He was found in the early hours of this morning by some poor witch. Scared her half to death," he said bitterly and took out a cigarette.

"No smoking, not even out the window. Barty Crouch came in here yesterday and asked if I'd been smoking. He said I would be in big trouble if I was caught so no more crafty smoking out the window, even if you are having a nervous break down," Minerva smiled ever so slightly as Alastor swore under his breath. "Or if you really have to, do it in someone else's office, because you're not ruining my chance of being head auror. So has Billius seen the body yet?"

"No, medical examiner's day off. Lazy git," Alastor replied with disgust. "You would think a high profile case like this the stupid git could make an exception."

"I shall get Rudy on to him. He can intimidate Billius," Minerva said primly. "Has high and mighty John Reiner admitted that we have a serial killer who is not connected to the dark arts movements yet?"

Alastor raised both eyebrows and snorted in disbelief.

"Are you kidding? That would mean more paperwork for John, not to mention going back on his word when he gave that interview to the _Daily Prophet_."

Minerva rolled her eyes in exasperation and sighed.

"Whoever is doing this is going to be annoyed that the dark movement down south is getting his credit. It will make him worse."

"No shit."

Minerva picked up the latest photograph of the fifth body and stood up to walk out of her office. Alastor followed her into the investigation room and watched her pin up latest victim's photo on the board.

"Right everybody listen up, we have another body found by the docks this morning." Everybody sat up in their seats looking coolly up at Minerva as she walked out of her office and over to the board. She had been the first woman in the ranks to make it to Detective Inspector. Minerva had so far found the unit she had been assigned to hard work, as it would take a lot coaxing and guiding to get the team to respect her, especially as she was a woman. Minerva saw the cold looks she was getting and ignored them. At least Alastor was there to give her support and respect. He had stood by her all through default and got her going so she could stand on her own two feet. Soon the team's attention was on the latest victim as Minerva pointed to the black and white Polaroid. "We don't know much at this point as the medical examiner can't be bothered to take a look at the body this morning. Rudy, I want you to fix that problem. Until we know more about this man from the pathologist, we shall have to use the old tricks. Jonas, Pete and George, I want you down at the docks asking questions about whether anyone saw someone or something, however irrelevant they think it is."

Jonas and Pete grabbed their cloaks from the rack near the door and sped out without another word. George appparated on the spot.

"Rupe, Amos, Jeff and Joseph, I want you checking out the other four murders and keep badgering people. Find out where they came from especially the muggles, find out their background, right down to their shoe size. I want something to link these men together."

"You got it boss," Amos nodded and sprang up from his chair with fresh determination. "I shall do Charles Bunting."

"I'll do Bevan Wheston," Joseph put in as he followed Amos out the door.

"I will do Patrick Dohnovan," Rupe said and turned in the opposite direction to the others.

"Well, I guess I'll do Samuel Atkins then," Jeff told them and closed the door behind him.

Minerva looked over to Alastor who was still sitting on the desk in the back near her office.

"Are you still in touch with Albus Dumbledore?" she asked and walked back over to him.

"As far as I know, why?" Alastor replied slightly suspicious of what she was going to ask him to do.

"I think we could use his expertise on this case. He did solve the Highman murders during Grindlewald's reign of terror three years ago," Minerva said thoughtfully, placing her hand on her right hip.

"Only because he thought Highman and his mistress were part of the dark side. But I suppose he may be of some use. I shall pay Albus a visit this evening because he teaches during the day." Alastor said offhandedly and glanced up at Minerva who was thinking. "What are your plans for now?"

"I need to take a look at the place where the body was found," she said finally as Alastor nodded.

"Mind if I tag along?" he asked without waiting for an answer.

"Only because you want a cigarette," Minerva replied as she summoned her cloak and disapparated. Alastor smirked and apparated after her.

Please Review? Please? Go on...


	3. The Irritating Things In Life

Disclaimer: If I did ever own Harry Potter and his chums I would be a very lucky person and therefore I would not have to spend time writing all the fanfiction stories nor read everybody elses.

A/N: Thank you very much to everyone who has reviewed. The next chapter are not beta-read as bigkihap is out of town for a few days and could not finish editing them before she left. So, me being the impatient one,has decided to post it anyway and when she sends back the edited version I shall re-load the whole chapter. Oh and beware of the bad language! Anyone that doesn't like bad language, don't read! There isn't too much but you have been warned!

Bex

Quill of Minerva: I thought I would write one where Alastor and Minerva are actually crime solving. I have read lots of stories where they were aurors or have solved crimes but I thought it would be good to see them rise and fall like in real crime mystery's. I hope you like the next chapter! Thanks for reviewing!

Always Hopeful: Thank you for reviewing! I hope you find the next chapter asinteresting!

Aurinko: The response I was hoping for! Thank you! It was supposed to be scary! I thought it would be good to show how Minerva can manage to keep her class under control later on after she has quit the ministry! Thanks again! i hope you enjoy this chapter!

foci: Thank you for putting it on your fav's! And i'm glad you like Minerva! I hope you like this next chapter!

'Tis a Gift to Be Free: I should put an AU sign on it really, lol. I'm glad you have read it! Thank you for the praise! I hope you like this chapter!

discompobilated: Well you have your wish, my dear Amanda, you have read it before everyone else lol! Thanks for the review!

Chapter 2

Rudy Brighter was in no mood to piss about with anyone and the last thing he needed right now was to dig up a self-righteous old git who could not be bothered with anything except his own reputation. Billius Omen had got on every last nerve of Rudy ever since the dear 'doctor' was passed onto the auror headquarters. He had been given every last thing from instruments, a brand new office in the newly build part of the ministry, to redecorating the mortuary. How the old man ever got his medical decree, Rudy never new. But it certainly wasn't by talent. Striding up the pink paving slabs that lead to the medical examiners house, Rudy banged rudely on the door.

"Wake up you lazy sod," he shouted to the open window upstairs. A horse-faced woman with curly blonde hair poked her head out, net curtains flying either side of her. Rudy looked up at the woman with a no-nonsense stare.

"What do you want?" she hollered at him, turning up her nose as she realised who he was.

"Your husband, tell him to get in the mortuary in fifteen minutes or I'm gonna bust his ass!" Rudy shouted at the woman as she stuck her middle finger at her, and stormed back down the front garden, taking extra care to slam the gate.

"Arsehole!" the woman yelled at his retreating back. After walking a safe distance away from the muggle road, Rudy apperated to the crime scene where Miss McGonagall and Mr Moody stood talking to a tall man clad in bright blue robes.

"Problem taken care of, ma'am." Rudy nodded curtly to Mad-eye and Minerva.

"Excellent, I want you to keep an eye on him while he does the autopsy. You know what Billius is like with missing the obvious. Any major developments occur then come and find me." Minerva said brusquely and turned to the man in bright blue robes. "This is Auror Rudy Brighter, Mr Reiner."

Rudy bowed to the man and shook his hand. John Reiner stared at the young auror and sniffed with the air of having a nasty smell that had been put right under his nose.

"Pleasure," he said coldly to Rudy. Alastor growled at the superintendent as if he wanted to tear him apart. "Well, must be going. Lots of work to do. I'll have to give the press a report too,"

"Oh I shouldn't think that would be necessary. We don't yet know enough about the crime scene or the body to be releasing statements," Alastor said baring his teeth.

"Well that's YOUR job to find out, Special Auror Moody, isn't it? I want full autopsy reports and auror reports by Friday, Minerva." Superintendent Reiner sneered at them.

"You shall have them, John, when we have investigated all aspects of the investigation." Minerva replied curtly. She hated being told what to do by some one who was incapable of running even the simplest investigation. The superintendent narrowed his eyes and nodded to the three aurors. Once he was out of earshot, Alastor muttered a few choice insults at the arrogant wizard, and turned his attention back to Minerva and Rudy.

"Right, well as far as we know. The body was facing towards the river, on his back, with his arms folded over his chest in a criss-cross." Mad-eye informed them and Minerva walked around looking for clues of any other sort. "We reckon that the body was killed elsewhere as there is no sign of blood or anything else at this point. The body itself was as clean as anything, so it's a good chance that the killer knows all about evidence."

Minerva crouched down and picked up an old shaped nail from the ground.

"Strange, all the bodies have been placed in ritualistic positions too," she asked Moody, while looking suspiciously at the nail she picked off the ground.

"That nail your looking at is from a cuff, bag it. It could mean something," Moody said gruffly and took out a cigarette from a small packet. Minerva took out a sandwich bag from her pocket and slipped the nail into it, taking care to fold it and put it in her inner pocket on her cloak.

"Hey, you fancy a bit to eat? I'm starvin'," Moody complained loudly. Minerva glanced up at him and shook her head.

"No thank you, Alastor." Minerva replied firmly. "There is one thing I have noticed about these killings."

"I'm all ears," Alastor blew out smoke that flew out towards the river.

"They are all on the North side of the river." Minerva said with a calculating look and Moody's eyebrows shot up.

"I think we had better get a map and mark out the killin's. There maybe a pattern?" Alastor suggested, tapping the end of his cigarette.

"Yes. But in the mean time, I want you to focus on getting Albus Dumbledore in. I want a second opinion before we jump to conclusions." Minerva looked sharply at Alastor.

"Alright, I'm goin'. I'll see if he wants to take me out for dinner then," Alastor growled at her, rolled his eyes and walked off down a back-alley to apperate. Minerva smiled slightly at his retreating back. _Good,_ she thought.

Albus sat at his old mahogany desk in his classroom going over the fifth year's homework. He was particularly please with this years batch of transfiguration students, most had seemed to fail in their four years, until his return into teaching the past September. Albus had set them a test to see what they already had been taught by Georgis Burkeman, the other part-time teacher, who had taught them all through the war while Albus was away. Now Albus had come back, the two teachers had come to an agreement that if Georgis taught the lower years, Albus would teach the higher years the advanced stuff so they both got to keep the job they loved. Albus thought it unfair to kick his old friend out of the job just because he had returned from war. Having it this way, Albus got to do more things that he had wished he had done when he was a young man.

Looking up at the clock, Albus saw that it was nearly half past five. _Ah excellent, I can just finish these last couple before dinnertime._ He thought, happily sucking on his last lemon drop that he had found at the bottom of his draw. A sudden WOOSH quickly squashed that feeling as Albus jumped to his feet with his wand at the ready, knocking down the chair. Albus almost choked on his lemon drop as he tried to figure out who the impostor was.

"Well, nice to see you to Albus!" grumbled Alastor as he walked swiftly out of the fire.

"Oh dear Merlin, Alastor! You gave me a fright," cried Albus, trying not to cough on his sweet, but failing. Alastor walked round to his friend and slapped him on the back.

"Thank you," he replied weakly, gesturing for Alastor to sit in the chair opposite him. Picking up the chair that had been knocked down, Albus sat down again and interlined his fingers with each hand.

"What can I do for you, Alastor?" said Albus after he had recovered from the shock.

"I have to ask a favour of you, Albus." Moody started, getting straight to the point. "Are you free for dinner? Perhaps we could talk about it there?"

"Yes, of course. Where do you have in mind?" Albus smiled at the auror.

"I saw a nice Chinese place in Edinburgh last week. Wanna try it out?" suggested Alastor, rubbing his stomach, which had just growled. Albus looked at him in amusement and smiled wider.

"Of course. I shall let the headmaster know and we shall be on our way," he replied and pushed himself out of the chair. Walking over to the fireplace, Albus grabbed a handful of Floo powder and shouted "Headmasters' office." A small man with hazel eyes and thinning grey hair sat at a big desk filled with a number of interesting books and parchment looked into the fire as Albus's head appeared.

"Good evening, Armando. I'm sorry to intrude like this but I thought I have better let you know that I shall not be at dinner this evening. Something else has cropped up that I must discuss with a former friend of mine," Albus informed the headmaster. Armando smiled at Albus.

"Not at all, my old friend. Please, come and go, as you will. Thank you for letting me know. I hope you enjoy your supper," he replied cheerfully.

"Thank you, Armando. Good night," said Albus and disappeared from the green fire. Turning around to see Alastor waiting at the door, Albus summoned his travelling cloak from his office and followed the auror.

Please set my humble heart at bay and tell my this chapter went ok...


	4. Looking For Help

Disclaimer: You know the deal, I own nothing!

A/N: Well thank you to Quill of Minerva, 'Tis a Gift to Be Free, foci and anyone else who reviewed the last chapter.I shall re-post chapter 3 over the next couple of days when I have time. **I have to warn people that this chapter contains bad language and graphic description. If don't like either, then simply don't read! You have been warned.**

Bex

Big thanks to bigkihap for being a great beta-reader! You ROCK!

Chapter 3

Alastor had been right about the Chinese restaurant being nice. In fact, it was more than nice, it was gorgeous. The food that had been cooked was exquisite. Albus made a mental note to tell Aberforth, his brother, about this place. In a secluded booth near the back of the room, Alastor began to fill Albus in on the investigation so far.

"Well, I know you haven't taken me out just because you're dateless, so what is troubling you my friend?" Albus said, twisting his noodles around the wooden set of chopsticks. Alastor glanced around the restaurant before shifting closer and leaning over the table.

"I'm sure you have heard about the murder cases situated around London," he muttered in a low voice so nobody but Albus could hear him. Albus glanced up into the face of his friend, the dark circles under his eyes stood out more than ever over his pale waxy face. "Three wizards and two muggles, all of them are men and all of them placed in ritualistic positions on the north side of the Thames. _The Daily Prophet_ tells the world that these cases are not connected but they are. You have dealt with the _Prophet_ before Albus. They are hardly ever told any of the details anyway because even the smallest mistake could lead to them making up the wildest stories you will ever hear and everybody and his best mate will be searching for the wrong person or group. But anyway, the fact that these men are being practiced on suggests that one of the old pureblood families have, once again, found and brought back the old rituals since the times of Merlin."

Alastor watched his friend's face grow hard and calculating like whenever he had a mystery that was particularly gruesome to solve. Albus's eyes never shook from the piecing stare that he was now giving Alastor at this piece of information. Wiping his mouth with his red napkin and placing it down onto his plate, Albus moved slightly forward and placed a spell on the booth to prevent anyone from listening in on this point forward.

"I'm not particularly one for back stories but I had to look into these old rituals. The group of which these particular rituals were created by was called the Black House Guild. They were a group of so-called 'doctors', the _proper_ purebloods. These rituals that they performed were experiments on muggles; how to make them suffer, how to protect themselves from the disease that the muggles were supposed to have spread, things like that. You know, all the old tedious prejudice that the old pureblood families posses. Myths mention that all of the experiments and records were destroyed in the great 'Battle of Merlin',"

"Or so they thought." Albus finished pensively. "Naturally, someone would have stolen or hidden some of the old files and books."

"Exactly. What we have no idea about is whether the group committing these atrocities is part of Grindlewald's old crowd, or whether it is just a bunch of nosy mother-fuckers that happen to have come across a bunch of old papers in the basement, and decided to try them out. The thing we are certain about though is that the MO is the same on these poor muggles. Different techniques every time they kill, so random, but so obvious."

Alastor stared intensely at his friend across the table. The room temperature seemed to have dropped several degrees in the past few minutes. It seemed like a dark cloud of gloom had descended and hung over the table, destroying the vibrant red and gold colours of the booth.

"Who is this 'we'?" Albus said finally once he had taken in and processed the information that Alastor had told him.

"By 'we', I mean me and my partner, Detective Inspector Minerva McGonagall. You may remember her as the star of Hogwarts 1937," Alastor informed him. Albus sat back into his seat and relaxed slightly. Thinking hard, Albus vaguely remembered a spotty teen, clutching a special transfiguration award.

"Ahh, yes. She had a bobbed haircut, glasses and a trained raven perched on her shoulder. She mastered transfiguration and won an award," he concluded with a small smile.

"No, that was Josephine Cox, Minerva's rival. Minerva was the pretty young lady with all the boys following her. Long raven-coloured hair flowing down her back, green eyes, and a perfect figure. But you were not completely wrong she has been seen clutching a transfiguration award. Along with potions and charms," Alastor eyed him coolly and lit up a cigarette.

"Oh, no I'm afraid I don't recall her. I must have left because of the war. I left January 5, 1937. Myself and others thought we had made a tremendous effort with convincing the German muggle government to cancel their plans for war," Albus shook his head sadly. "Alas, it was to no avail. Nevermind, what's done is done."

"Oh yes, I remember you mentioning about going away around that time,"

"Anyway, I am always interested in making new acquaintances. I'm sure she will be absolutely charming," said Albus graciously and picked up his lemonade to drink.

"I'm sure Minerva shall be just as delighted. She was the one who mentioned the idea of bringing you in to help us. Minerva values your opinions and shares your thoughts in interviews. She has read your case files on the Highman murders and admires your intellect," Alastor conceded, signalling the waiter for the bill.

"I shall pay Alastor."

"Oh no you don't. I have lost count of the many times that you have paid for my dinner, now it is my turn to start re-paying my debt." Alastor said gruffly and tapped Albus's hand away from his pocket full of money. Alastor tipped out his pile of gold and transfigured it into muggle money; two ten-pound notes and a fifty pence piece, placing one of the ten-pound notes and the fifty pence piece onto a silver tray. Alastor lifted himself out of the semi-circle booth. Albus followed suit, nodded to the waiter, and began to walk towards the door.

"Here is your change, sir," said the waiter as Alastor began to walk away.

"Nah, keep it, my good man." Alastor replied gruffly and patted the waiter on the back. Walking straight out the door, Alastor stopped outside beneath a sign where Albus was waiting for him.

"I think a nice walk down on the sea front would be marvellous. Perhaps there we could finish our discussion?" Albus suggested with a small smile. Alastor nodded and glanced around. Dusk had started to set in over the streets of terraced houses in Edinburgh. The red clouds floated over to the west in the hills. Standing at the end of the road on the bottom of the hill, Albus turned to Alastor and grinned.

"See you at the end of the pier!" he said and a small 'pop' echoed throughout the empty street. Alastor disapparated to the pier moments later and found Albus staring out on to the misty sea. The wind whipped their outer cloaks around their legs, giving Albus a slightly bizarre look, as his suit was a dashing shade of purple.

"So will you help us?" Alastor asked him as he too lent against the stone wall.

"I shall help you as much as I possibly can. You know of my school commitments so I shall only be around for parts of the day," Albus glanced over to his friend's firm face.

"Of course. All the help you can provide us would be greatly appreciated, Albus." Alastor inclined his head and Albus gestured for him to walk towards the pier. Alastor moved off the wall and began to walk by his side, gazing lazily across the vast amount of sea to his left.

"So what are the unofficial details then?" Albus asked eventually, walking slowly and gazing at the seagulls flying over a discarded chip tray.

"Different types of knives have been used to dissect the bodies. They're experimenting with the different types of pain that can be inflicted using anything from scalpels to blunt table knives, meat knives to penknives. Also, the different types of potions and chemicals that came of said potions. We think they test them on all the wounds inflicted by the knives that I have mentioned to test the type of reaction and the sort of pain it causes.

At the moment Minerva feels that it is all pain related, then once they have finished all their experiments and such, they will develop some kind of pointless vaccine."

"Or a disease to kill muggles and muggleborns off with," Albus put in gravely.

"These people must be people who work or have worked in the ministry previously because they seem to know most of the basic evidence tactics that we look for. All five bodies have been cleaned off. But fortunately for us, even though the bodies have been scrubbed, the poor men have all been alive when these fumes and potions entered the body. It would have passed around the body and entered half the organs, so when our _dear_ doctor has checked them all, the effects have lingered so we can investigate into what they have used." Alastor looked seriously at Albus who looked incredibly white and emotionless.

"The latest body," Alastor continued grimly. "Was sent into the morgue this morning. Again, he was found in a similar ritualistic position as the rest of the poor men, and again he was placed facing the north on the west side of the river Thames. His hands were placed delicately over his cut open chest as if he was about to be mummified. Minerva has decided to set out all the evidence on a board so we can brainstorm as a group this evening."

"I would like to see this," Albus decided, glancing at his watch. The watch hands were two moons ticking around a sun. The long hand was facing the ten and the short hand was moving slowly between the six and the seven. "Would now be a good time?"

"Now would be a great time," replied Alastor, his face lighting up for the first time. He stretched out his arm, offering it to Albus. "Hold on, I shall take you straight into our headquarters,"

Albus took Alastor's arm and held on firmly as Alastor apparated into the Auror Headquarters at the Ministry of Magic.

Minerva stood facing the board, with all the pieces of evidence, such as files, Polaroid's, bags of offending objects and notes made by various members of the team. A weary-looking Rudy stomped through the door with a scowl fixed onto his face. Nodding to Minerva once he had located her within the room full of aurors, Rudy made his way to her, handing over the file he was carrying for her.

"Thank you, Rudy. I see you had no trouble getting Billius out of bed and into the mortuary," Minerva commented crisply.

"With the efforts of several threats to tell the press about how he really treats his cases, I managed to get the lazy git to do it properly too," he scowled darkly.

Minerva opened the reports and scanned them thoroughly before catching the attention of the group. The poor victim had been gassed with the sickly fumes made by a potion known as The Membonus. Brewed only at full moon, the intoxicating fumes are enough to make somebody shrivel to death so extra precaution has to be taken. Minerva remembered reading about it when she studied the Dark Arts deeply to recognise these types of potions and spells to protect herself and others. The potion itself makes the person die very slowly in agony as the whole body gradually heats up like a furnace. The body parts begin to cook and shrivel, until they can work no longer then eventually, the drinker will die. The poor man it seemed had been chained up, cut open and then gassed so he would have been able to watch himself start to cook. Minerva's face had turned to the colour of stone. It was enough for everyone not to give her any nonsense because she looked quite frightening. No one dared cross the line when Minerva was in a mood for fear of striking up her famous Scottish temper. Not many people had witnessed the wrath of Minerva McGonagall, but most had heard through the ministry grapevine that it was terrible. An awful silence resounded throughout the room as Minerva took a deep breath before talking to the group.

"Our latest victim," she said stonily, "is a gas victim. The wizard was aged between twenty-five to thirty-five. The name is still unknown. Most of his features, as you can see, have been burnt and shrivelled so his identity will be hard to find."

Minerva pinned up the Polaroid's onto the board so everybody could see. Some retched, others looked deeply disgusted and remorseful.

"There are most definitely links between the wizards and the muggles. Amos has so kindly spent most of the afternoon investigating and positioning the bodies on this map," Minerva continued and indicated to a map of the area around the Thames. "All of these men have been found on the west side of the river placed towards the north in ritualistic positions. Any theories?"

"These men could have been hunted down then killed," suggested Jeff, leaning against the doorframe, his arms folded.

"Hmmm, possibly. But why these men?" Minerva pushed them further.

"Patrick Dohnovan was gay, could be part of the process? You know what these fascist buggers are like," Pete piped up, swinging around on his chair at the back of the room.

"Yes, these people could be trying to rid the world of what they call 'filth'. They could be trying to make their 'Race' superior to all others that they deem low and unworthy," George suggested helpfully.

"Very good, what about the other three?" Minerva nodded in agreement.

"Nothing on Charles Bunting. Average muggle bachelor, widower, kids are in the army. Aged thirty-nine. I haven't found anything else at this point," Amos concluded.

"I think the fact that he was a muggle was enough to get him killed," Rudy grumbled from the corner.

"Any connection between the other wizard?"

"Bevan Wheston is an average wizard. Girlfriend, job in apothecary. Heir of the Wheston fortune, nothing particularly interesting about him at this point either,"Jonas informed the group.

"Keep working on it. There has to be something that connects these men. They can't have been picked up randomly," Minerva said firmly and turned to stare at the gruesome Polaroid's. The fact that they were all on the north side of the river irked Minerva.She felt as though she was missing something important as she gazed over the facts that were scrawled over the board. A sudden 'pop' behind her distracted Minerva from her musings. Turning to face the intruders, Minerva saw the form of Albus Dumbledore and her partner Alastor Moody, striding across the room towards her.

Please review and tell me whether it was good, bad, ok...


End file.
